Posted on 07/23/2007 11:16:51 AM PDT by Kaslin
ROCKVILLE, Md. — The prosecutor in the case of a Liberian native charged with repeatedly raping and molesting a 7-year-old girl said Monday that he is filing an appeal of a controversial judge's ruling that dismissed all charges because an interpreter who spoke the suspect's rare West African dialect could not be found.
Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy called the ruling last Tuesday by Judge Katherine Savage "improper," adding that his office has "requested that an appeal be taken to reverse the court's order."
Savage ruled on July 17 that Mahamu Kanneh, a Liberian who received asylum in the U.S. and attended high school and community college here, was denied a speedy trial after three years awaiting a court-appointed interpreter who could speak the tribal language of Vai. Linguists estimate that only 100,000 people speak Vai.
Savage called her decision one of the most difficult she's had to make in a long time, especially since she was aware of "the gravity of this case and the community's concern about offenses of this type."
Det. Omar Hasan wrote in the charging document that the victim "attempted to physically stop the behavior from the defendant, but was unsuccessful," the Washington Post reported. Kanneh threatened the young girl "with not being able to leave the apartment unless she engaged in sexual behavior with the defendant," Hasan wrote in his report.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
You’re right! I need an interpreter!
Why aren’t the costs of interpreters added to a “bill” if someone is found guilty?
Seems like a common sense thing to do.
The court found three interpreters also. The first one quit because she couldn’t handle the details of the case. The second was fired because of faulty interpretation (who would have known it was faulty?), and the third had to take care of a family emergency.
I wonder if the judge can be recalled??????
And, be convicted? Perrish the thought.
Hey, Sammy Sosa acted as if he didn't speak any English when brought before the Senate to discuss steroid abuse.
This is not an uncommon problem, and is usually dealt with by judges in different ways. For example, the Dineh (Navajo) language is so complex, that a translator at a trial may say “untranslatable”, repeatedly, for a minute or more before the judge asks for a re-phrase, until they discover some means of expressing the testimony in English.
In this case, the judge could order an expert in similar African languages to try and set up a dialogue with the defendant, to be able to convey the major concepts of the trial to him. Though circumstantial evidence will be essential, as well as the testimony of other witnesses, it should be no harder to try the defendant that if he were being tried in absentia.
This whole thing is absolute garbage. Defense counsel once again plays the system like a fiddle; I bet dollars to doughnuts the defense attorneys do this all of the time with clients whose native language isn’t English. They also know the judges well enough to realize this sort of ruse works. Madame Judge apparently has zero common sense.
yes
Our appellate courts, in their infinite politically correct wisdom, have ruled that the courts MUST provide an interpreter to anyone who asks. Costs are not taxable as far as I know.
You are funny-since when has common sense ruled anything having to do with government??? ;-)
The rapist speaks and understands English. He went to school in Maryland and even graduated from Highschool and went to a Community college
> Naw, he knew English. He graduated in MD from Highschool and went to a Community College
I think you are making the false assumption that one must speak English to attend schools in the Peoples Republic of Maryland - if you knew our education system, you would realize that is not necessarily true! (Though it sounds as if this guy did).
> Naw, he knew English. He graduated in MD from Highschool and went to a Community College
I think you are making the false assumption that one must speak English to attend schools in the Peoples Republic of Maryland - if you knew our education system, you would realize that is not necessarily true! (Though it sounds as if this guy did).
I wouldn’t know, neither would you unless you are from MD
Besides it’s been reported that he speaks English and that he graduated from Highschool
It was a court appointed shrink who decided the rapist needed a transator
I am indeed a resident of Maryland.
Since, of course, no hospital or practice can employ a stable of Vai-speakers, the government will graciously permit the use of a telephone service. This, of course, is clinically inadequate (the voice on the other end of the phone has no medical training, and can't help with body language), but it's good enough to keep you out of trouble with Uncle Sam.
What a country!
“”improper” IMPROPER????? Should be “criminal”. This judge needs to be thrown off the bench.
This is all discretionary, and could have been reversed by George W. Bush at any time within the past six and a half years.
This "blame Clinton" stuff is getting very old.
English is his native language. He may have learned Vai, but only as a secondary language.
oh ok
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